Hotel Transylvania

Bed and breakfast

by Mark Brown 16/11/2012

I've been playing a game that's set in a looming gothic mansion, with interconnected rooms and pathways. I'm playing as a vampire who beats up zombies and skeletons, and can turn into a bat or a misty apparition. Incredibly, it's not called Symphony of the Night.

It's actually called Hotel Transylvania, and it's a DS (and 3DS) tie-in for the movie of the same name. It uses the Castlevania template, so expect open-world exploration, complex maps, and areas you can't explore until you unlock some new ability.

But it's a highly concentrated take on the Konami classic, which has been so squished and simplified that the charms of Alucard's monster-hunting adventure are all but unrecognisable. ...

Too short, too simple, too easy. This 'My First Castlevania' game is cute and charming, but there's not enough in this hotel to warrant staying the night

RATINGS
Audio/visual: 7
Gameplay: 5
Value: 3
Innovation: 3
Overall: 4